Karadzic calls Srebrenica massacre “a myth”

Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic says the mass killings of non-Serbs in Sarajevo and Srebrenica during the 1992-1995 Bosnian conflict are a “myth”, and denies any responsibility for them. During day two of his opening statement at the UN war crimes tribunal Tuesday, Karadzic said that Sarajevo was not under Bosnian Serb siege; rather, it was his army that was encircled by Muslim and Croatian forces. He also denied that Bosnian Serb forces shelled civilians at random.

“We were accused of firing indiscriminately at Sarajevo, but the targets were legitimate targets,” he said. Karadzic accused Bosnian Muslims of killing Bosniak civilians in order to trigger foreign intervention. “They shelled their own people and killed their own people [with] snipers,” he said. Karadzic is charged with genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity stemming from the Bosnian conflict.